Concert Outfit Inspiration & What's In My Bag + Ellie Goulding Concert!

Outfit Inspiration & What's In My Bag:

Concert Edition

Welcome back to CRB beauties! I'm so excited about today's post! Friday I had the honour of FINALLY seeing Ellie Goulding in concert and she was AMAZING of course. But first, let's get into what I wore.

Selfie nation + casually sitting in line...in the rain

Now I actually bought these tickets for my cousin as a birthday present (I know, best cousin ever right?) and the time I bought it was in January. So of course, I couldn't really pre-plan my outfit too much considering I'm not a fortune teller and couldn't predict what the weather would be like in May. However, assuming it would be nice out, I had envisioned an outfit. I planned on wearing faux leather shorts with a simple white tank top and a floral kimono. It sounded great in my head. Then last week I checked the weather and almost cried. Literally every day before and after the concert was sunny and fine but the day of it said it was raining. So with that, I browsed online and found some ideas of what I wanted to look for when I went shopping. So with that story in mind, this is what I ended up wearing:

Now let's start off with the pants considering that's what I picked up first. I had already scoped them out online, but of course when I went into the store I picked up about 50 other things to try on. As per usual when I go shopping, nothing really worked out except these pants. And of course, I couldn't find a top anywhere so I left that day with just the jeans thinking "I should have something in my closet to wear". Oh I also picked up the cutout ring but unfortunately I have fat fingers (sad but true) so the rings would only go to my mid finger which was perfect anyways since I've been wanting to buy mid finger rings. So I took off the chain and wore each ring separate (making lemonade out of lemons everybody). I also had this idea to wear ankle boots or wedge sneakers but then realized how ridiculous that sounded considering I was going to be walking around, standing up and dancing for almost 12 hours, so since it was gonna rain too I just decided to wear my trusty TOMS which I got years ago. Of course, since things don't like to work out for me, I came home and tried on 12 different tops and none of them worked. So being the crazy person I am, I went shopping the day before the concert, hoping to just pop into H&M and pull a random t-shirt, knowing that best option with my jeans was a black, white or black and white shirt. Now here also, I tried on about 12 different shirts and only one worked, the one you see above. As I was trying on clothes, I did secretly want this to work out cause I just thought it was cool and thank goodness it did. Now even though I was on a time crunch that day, me being me just had to scope out the accessories and lo and behold I came across this beautiful neon lime shoulder bag. I actually didn't plan on getting a bag at all but after seeing this one, I thought it would look great with my outfit since I was planning on wearing orange lipstick too and got it. As for my nails, I had actually painted them with a different top in mind but decided it worked anyways. The infinity bracelet, triangle studs and wrap around ring are the only things in the image above that aren't exact matches to what I wore because I simply couldn't find them online, but they are similar. I knew I wanted to go gold with the accessories but not go too over the top and thought the silver earrings would just be a good contrast. One thing extra that I didn't add to the picture above was I brought along a random cardigan I picked up from JC Penney once in case it got cold, which it did with the rain plus it got even colder cause the venue was right next to the lakeshore. It was good enough to keep me warm but thin enough to tie on my bag when I got hot inside the concert.

For me, I'm the type of person that literally carries so many things in her bag she can't find one thing in it so it was difficult for me to downsize on this one. I'm just the kind of person who needs to be prepared for any situation and I do so by packing a bunch of random stuff in my bag. I tried my best to bring only the essentials and I think I did a good job. The little coin purse I used is actually a removable coin purse that I took from my Michael Kors Wallet. This really came in handy because I didn't wanna cram my whole wallet in the bag because that would take up unnecessary space. So I used the coin purse and just carried some money, my ID and a bank card just in case. Now also because it said it was raining, I of course wanted to bring an umbrella but needed one small enough to fit in my bag because, come on, I'm not gonna be walking into a concert swinging around an umbrella while I'm dancing. I actually found this umbrella by chance. A few days before the concert my sister and I went to Michael's Craft Store to pick up a few things for a baby shower present when I spotted this umbrella near the checkout. It was literally what I was looking for so we each picked up one. It fit perfectly in my bag, and really came in handy when it rained while we were in line. I was a decent size (my sister and cousin actually shared one and let the people next to us borrow our extra umbrella since they didn't have one) and came with a handy cover making it easy to quickly throw back into my bag. Now I actually use the leopard makeup bag pictured above from Ipsy to hold my makeup but I figured I didn't want to carry too much stuff (downsize remember?). So I figured the only things I REALLY needed was the lipstick I was wearing to reapply during the day if needed, and a mirror/powder for touch-ups. I did still use the leopard bag however because I wanted something small enough to fit in my bag and carry feminine products. Let's just say it was around my time of the month and the worst thing that would happen was to get my period and not be prepared. So I just packed the makeup bag with a few pads and cleansing cloths from Summer's Eve (gotta take care of your lady parts too, ladies!). The main thing (other than the concert ticket) that I needed to have with me was my charger case. It's just a very useful thing to have with you just in case your battery runs out - that's one thing you don't want to happen while you're trying to take pictures at a concert! The one I carried I actually got for my birthday which is great cause I don't think I would've bought one otherwise. Other random items were hair ties to put up my hair when I got hot, a Listerine Pocketmist because it was smaller than a pack of gum but had the same effect, earbuds to listen to music on the subway, Kleenex and a small tube of lotion. And because I'm super neat-freaky and have to have things organized, I separated my items into the three slots of my bag. The first slot had beauty essentials (makeup, tissues, and cream), the middle slot had the valuables that I didn't want to lose (coin purse, concert tickets, headphones, phone, and makeup bag) and the last slot was for everything else (umbrella, hair ties, and the Pocketmist).

Now to the good stuff. I actually found out in line that the concert was more festival like and was going to have different acts along with Ellie (I didn't actually know this because when I purchased the tickets I got them straight from the Ellie Goulding website and it labeled it as just her concert) and I also didn't have the physical ticket on me (I had to pick it up from the box office as I was entering). Any who, it was called the Chum FM Fan Fest 2014 and basically was a music festival hosted by a local radio station in Toronto along with the organization Canadian Music Week showcasing different up and coming artists from around Canada and the US but also had Tegan and Sara and Ellie Goulding headlining the fest. Initially I wasn't too excited to hear the other acts cause I just wanted to hear Ellie, but I ended up being surprised by all the talent and enjoyed all the artists. I even found some artists that I had never heard of and really enjoyed like Cris Cab who had an amazing and unique voice and it was only him and his guitar which sounded amazing and Andrew Allen whose voice also impressed me but I was sold when he did a mash-up of 90s pop music which he labeled as the 'best era pop music' (which everyone agreed on because we were singing along to everything from Bye Bye Bye to Barbie Girl).

Left to right: Cris Cab, Magic!, Alyssa Reid, Kristina Maria, Tegan and Sara, Andrew Allen

But of course, after waiting for four long years, I finally saw Ellie and it was better than I had imagined. We managed to get our way to the front gate and even though it wasn't centre stage we still were fairly close. Guys, IT WAS AMAZING. She sang all my old favourites and new favourites and her dancing was the highlight of the night. The atmosphere was so amazing and she can sing her butt off live. She also played the drums and the guitar for a few of her songs. This night was the last night of her tour and she definitely made it count. I was disappointed cause it felt so short even though it wasn't (if it were up to me I would've had her singing the whole night) but other than that it was unbelievable. She really knows how to get the crowd going. I was hoping to get a picture with her (hey, a girl can dream right?), maybe next time. What I loved most about the whole experience was the crowd. It was so great to see people who truly enjoyed Ellie's music come together to sing along to all her songs. It was simply the best night of my life.

The best part of the night - when everyone sang along to Lights.